Rovio Copenhagen to close after Sonic Blitz cancellation

Sega-owned Rovio is closing its Copenhagen studio after the cancellation of its runner-CCG hybrid Sonic Blitz.

A Rovio spokesperson sent us the below statement: “Following a redundancy process, Rovio will discontinue all its operations in Denmark. Because the process has not yet concluded, we are not able to confirm an exact number of redundancies at the moment. Altogether, around 20 employees have worked on the now canceled Sonic Blitz project.”

“For team members who we cannot allocate to a new project within Rovio, we will provide a comprehensive transition package, including dedicated outplacement services and wellbeing support to assist them in securing their next career opportunities.”

“The decision to discontinue our operations in Copenhagen has been extremely difficult. We fully recognize the impact this has on our team, especially given the ongoing challenges within the broader games industry.”

Speaking to us this morning, Sega West COO and Rovio CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand explained a little more about the thinking behind the game.

Sonic Blitz was a hybrid runner and card collection game which we had been tracking in our regular soft launch updates since May 2025. According to AppMagic it has picked up over 200k downloads to date, mostly in Brazil but with a small fraction of players in Philippines, too.

“We are in this situation where we need to concentrate our bets both in terms of the games that we’re making and where we’re making them, and that’s what led to that situation,” Pelletier-Normand told us.

The idea behind the hybrid runner and card-collecting game was to combine the action of a fast-paced Sonic game while also offering fans a collectible meta to keep them coming back. But retention didn’t meet expectations, added Pelletier-Normand.

“You have these beautiful cards and if you flip them you have the story of that character, when it was introduced into the brand and we felt that this was a great addition and one that could please the Sonic fandom,” he said.

“That was the hypothesis. And in mobile, it looks great on paper, and then you just need to validate it, and it seems that retention hasn’t been really good for us, which is one of the first steps. We need to see people engage with the game for a long period of time.”

“I still am convinced that there is a way to reach more players on mobile with Sonic, it turns out that it’s much more complicated than I think both Sega and Rovio thought.”

“We’re still very proud of the game, very proud of of what the team achieved, but it didn’t work.”